


erva mate and other sweetened teas

by Mitskirise



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Adlers are sort of a big family, M/M, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 13:14:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29154129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mitskirise/pseuds/Mitskirise
Summary: Kourai-kun laughs, Tobio curls his lips. "With sugar… it’s not the real taste of tea" replies Wakatoshi, sitting down, right next to Kourai-kun. "A little bit of bitterness has never killed anyone."“For us,” Nicolás says. “Life is already too bitter. Tea, like coffee, must be sweet, like the sea, music... ""... and the family" ends Brayan.
Relationships: Hoshiumi Kourai & Nicolas Romero, Kageyama Tobio & Nicolas Romero, Nicolas Romero & Rubens Romero, Nicolas Romero & Ushijima Wakatoshi
Kudos: 6





	erva mate and other sweetened teas

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [erva mate e altri tipi di tè zuccherati](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27684005) by [Chalchiuhtlicue](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chalchiuhtlicue/pseuds/Chalchiuhtlicue). 



Brayan looks at him, before looking around and stroking his forehead, with a nervous laugh that doesn't have much to do with him or his personality. He crosses his legs, under the table and plants his elbows on top of it, while Nicolás, who more or less knows where these looks are going, sighs and caresses Rubens' head, sitting on his lap.

The evening was - an evening. And the guys were nice, certainly more sociable than they are on workdays, and they tried to talk more. 

In a rush of courage, Tobio tried to speak and ask Brayan questions in a mixture of languages (Japanese, English, there was some Portuguese Shoyo may have made him learn, but that expired in Spanish) and with gestures. In front of his feijoada, Tobio stammered foreign words, frowning, asking questions, spreading his arms so wide he sometimes hit Kourai-kun, who was studying Brayan and his posture, to imitate him. 

They were adorable, Nicolás thinks, stroking Rubens' curly hair, as he eats the remains of the meat, gnawing on the bones as if he hadn't seen food in days. Yeah, they were all adorable, Nicolás thinks again, hugging his grunting son.

The guys were nice. 

Brayan is one of the best volleyball players in the world, a respectable setter, according to what Fukuro said before burning himself with the pan he had brought ( _"You said to bring something, I brought something - to cook._ ”), and they were all excited to meet him and hoped to make a good impression. Fukuro kept repeating that Tobio didn't stop talking about Brayan Azevedo's awesome technique, and Kourai-kun wanted to trick Brayan to play with them. 

Fukuro sighed. He also apologized. Fukuro was hoping to make a good impression, but perhaps with the kind of teammates they have, that was not possible. Nicolás laughed at this. His teammates are perfect. He wouldn't have introduced them to Brayan if they weren't. And also Brayan - he was perfect, too. Not a flaw, not a misplaced word. Nicolás has never felt so much love for a group of people gathered together.

Outside of his family, sure.

"I thought I should come and cheer you up," Brayan tells Nicolás. He has a smile that goes from ear to ear. "As a child, you always cried when you slept alone."

Nicolás wrinkles his nose. He runs his hand over Rubens' head, who turns towards him, his mouth smeared with meat and sauces and black beans, his cheeks are a little red. " _Bebé"_ Nicolás calls him amused, ruffling his hair a little more. "Will you leave me alone with your _tio_ for a few seconds? Are you going to play there?"

Rubens blinks. He glances at Brayan, before frowning and turning to his dad. "No" is his answer which seems to have been very well thought out, and very convinced. (Rubens talked in Japanese.) Rubens wrinkles his nose and takes Nicolás' shirt with food-stained hands. His fingers are so small the pressure he puts on his stomach as he clings to his dad, with the confidence only children can have. “ _Papai_ must not be afraid. _Papai_ doesn't sleep alone” he finishes saying, turning to Brayan. 

Again, he answered in perfect Japanese, except for the word _dad._

Rubens doesn't find anything wrong with mixing Portuguese and Japanese. He found Tobio and his gestures very funny. During the evening, Rubens translated many words for Wakatoshi, asking for pieces of meat in exchange. Even if teachers reproach him, or even if they tell him he must choose only one language to speak, Rubens cannot help calling Nicolás _papai_. Not _outosan_. “ _Outosan”_ are the fathers of other children, they are unknown people, but _papai_ is _papai_ , he explained once when Nicolás went to pick him up from after school. Rubens refuses to use hiragana when he writes _papai_. It's something else, he repeated, showing him a drawing of the two of them, holding hands, in front of a volleyball court. _Papai never goes away._

However, Rubens is still using Portuguese less and less. One word less every day. Every day, as if it were a curse. Perhaps, however, it is better this way.

Brayan casts a reproachful look at Nicolás, who decides to kiss Rubens' curls instead. "We're fine here" he decides to answer Brayan, resting his chin on his son's shoulder. "It's nice here."

Brayan narrows his eyes. Then he lowers his eyes and sighs, sliding his elbow off the table, sighing with a sad heaviness. "So let's say I was hoping I had to come and cheer you up, even if that makes me a bad guy." He scratches the back of his neck, clicks his tongue. And yet it was Brayan who told him to take a job as far away from Saô Paolo as possible, at least for these years, to be with Rubens and to be able to earn and to be able to do what he loves. _Your son needs a father,_ he had said. _If you have to take him away to get his dad back, go away._

Rubens is not interested in the conversation between Brayan and Nicolás. He had a tantrum because he wanted to eat the churrasco, with all the meat only for him. Now he's intent on deciding what he can eat. For him it's the most important choice in this world, now, everything else takes a back seat. Rubens looks happy. Eating and playing make him the happiest child in the world and when he laughs loudly with his teeth that have yet to emerge from his gums, instead of the baby ones, Nicolás thinks... he wonders...

Nicolás always wonders if Rubens realized his mother was missing, or what he thought, when his father took him to the other side of the world, with only a backpack and a hat too light to face the Japanese cold. Nicolás wonders if he realized, during those months after a not-so-peaceful divorce, that his father was distant, that, like Alexandra, he didn't want to see him around the house often. Sometimes, Nicolás didn't want to see Rubens at all, he was angry and was looking for someone to blame and decided to give it to an innocent child. To his son, moreover. Maybe that's why Rubens clings to him when they move from one part of the city to the other. He knows that Nicolás is capable of looking away and not looking for him anymore. And this is too great a fault, on the shoulders of a father.

Rubens eats his meat with his hands, biting as if he didn't know good manners. Nicolás and Brayan let him do it. As long as there is no one around them, they agree that Rubens remains a free, wild child. Let the rest come later. The etiquette, the good education - that's not important.

"Aren't you going to come home anymore?" Brayan asks, shoving tissues across the surface of the table for Rubens to wipe his face when he's done. “Forget the old lady. Your mum is fine, she is perky. Don't you think about me? I couldn't sleep at night alone, too."

Nicolás blinks as if he was hit by something. Rubens looks up at the _tio_ and then at his _papai_. He lets go of the meat he holds in his hand. Brayan looks Nicolás in the eyes, he does not get distracted, nor does he hold back.

They grew up in the same neighborhood, Nicolás and Brayan, a few streets apart, found themselves climbing the concrete stairs with their bare feet to fetch water from the shops in the city above and they had not spoken at each other until their teen years and this was a kind of medal of honor, worn with pride, even if pride has little to do with this stubbornness. The _moreno_ and the _louro_. The two boys (the only ones) who played volleyball rather than soccer. And everyone expected this to unite them. Everyone expected them to become friends. It was annoying. A little fun too. _There can only be one volleyball player around here,_ Nicolás had told him during a sunset at the top of the stairs. As if volleyball wasn't a team sport. Brayan had responded by running up those stairs, with his bare feet, to challenge him - as if volleyball wasn't a team sport.

They were already friends, like that. They were also just two children. Nicolás was still a child when he had Rubens, come to think of it. And, had Brayan not always been with him, advising him, guiding him, loving him, Nicolás would not have taken over his role as a father. And he wouldn't keep his love for volleyball, his cheerful personality. To regain his calm and his peace, Nicolás had to go away from Saô Paolo. At least for a while. Although that had separated him from Brayan, his first rival, his old friend who never asked for anything, just a smile, a little peace, a win when they were playing on the same side of the court.

"Do you want me to come back?" Nicolás asks, in a doubtful tone, not sure what he would like to hear, which answer is the most appropriate. Does Brayan want him near? Does he want him...? "What...?" he starts asking but is interrupted by the sudden sound of the doorbell, followed by a muttering.

"Kourai-san" Rubens whispers, putting both hands on his lips. Then he gets up abruptly, trips over his slippers, and, in order not to fall forward, kicks back and runs for the door, regardless of having just hurt his dad.

Nicolàs has only time to turn around, to see Kourai-kun, Wakatoshi, and Tobio at the door, waving to Rubens, well covered in their jackets, with a red nose and a few snowflakes in their hair and scarfs.

“Romero-san,” Kourai-kun begins, distractedly ruffling Rubens' hair as he takes off his shoes. "We have to take the train. We had to. And Ushiwaka says: don't worry, I know where we are going. He makes us go round and round and round these three stupid streets and - ugh. So I ask Tobio and Tobio..." He enters the house with white socks and a heavy step. " _Tobio_."

"My map got wet," says Tobio, showing a sheet of paper that crumbles in his hands. He gestures to Rubens who takes his hand and swings their arms together. Tobio just seems to be very confused but doesn't let go of the hand.

" _His map got wet"_ repeats Kourai-kun with an extra hint of melodrama. Nicolás puts his hand on his lips, to hide a laugh. "And I came with Fukuro, who abandoned me, and I was not looking at the streets and the only way I knew for sure was just the way back here." He sits down at the table, throwing himself on the ground with a heavy thud. "I'm sorry." He crosses his arms and snorts. "I have no idea how to get them home." He glances at Brayan and, again, straightens his back, mimicking his posture.

Wakatoshi carefully arranges his shoes in front of the door, nods his head, asking for permission to enter the house.

“It's not a problem” Nicolás replies, with a smile. He glances at Brayan, who is trying to follow the conversation, frowning, and sighs. "We can drink tea together."

Wakatoshi is taking off his jacket, with slow gestures, but that doesn't stop him from commenting. "You put too much sugar in your tea, Romero-san." Then he returns to arrange Tobio and Kourai-kun's jackets at the entrance.

“Ah, that's right" Kourai-kun exclaims, making everyone jump in the living room. "I want it without sugar. Can I have it without sugar? Tobio-kun, you should help Romero-san make tea. "

Tobio thins his gaze. Rubens is still swinging their joined hands. "No," he replies. "You do it."

"Don't worry, Tobio" Nicolás tries to reassure him. He gets to his feet, even if he still feels the pain of the kick from just before. "Making tea does not take so much energy."

"You... don't you drink tea... with sugar?" Brayan asks, mimicking his words to make sure he is understood. "Isn't it too... bitter?"

Kourai-kun laughs, Tobio curls his lips. "With sugar… it’s not the real taste of tea" replies Wakatoshi, kneeling in front of the table, then sitting down, right next to Kourai-kun. "A little bit of bitterness has never killed anyone."

Nicolás licks his lips. “For us,” he says. “Life is already too bitter. Tea, like coffee, must be sweet, like the sea, music... "

"... and the family" ends Brayan.

Nicolás smiles. "And the family, yeah." He pretends not to hear Tobio, who leans towards Kourai-kun, and asks him: _do you think something has happened here?_ Nicolás still has some tea to make.


End file.
